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Neanderthals Made Giant Hand Axes
Giants are a major part of European mythology. In Scandinavia, bad weather was caused by the gods fighting the jotuns…giants…yet again. The Giant’s Causeway or Clochán an Aifir is a volcanic remnant, but was the remains of a causeway built by Finn MacCool.
Giants. They’re everywhere. And one piece of evidence to their existence is giant hand axes. Somebody who didn’t know human evolution and found an almost foot long hand axe might well decide it belonged to a giant.
It didn’t, of course. There’s no evidence of a race of giants in Europe. None.
But a recent trove of these tools found in Kent was dated…these tools are over 300,000 years old.
They predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe.
So, they didn’t belong to giants.
They belonged to Neanderthals.
Why Giant Handaxes?
The short version is: We don’t know. The huge tools are almost too large to hold. They are typical of ficrons, which are known across southern Britain. Just much, much bigger.
Ficrons were primarily used for butchering animals and cutting up meat. But why did these Neanderthals make such big ones. Here’s some theories:
- They were, in fact, used to butcher megafauna. They…